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Shoegaze and Beyond

Various Artists

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The Basics

Distorted guitars that intertwine into droning-but-dynamic riffs; understated vocals that lend melodic underpinnings to a sublime wall of sound; intense concentration, or perhaps a touch of studied shyness, resulting in a steadfast, footward stare while playing live . . . it must be Shoegaze, the musical movement marked by the reverberating washes of sound generated by such late-'80s/early-'90s bands as Lush, Ride, and the generally acknowledged progenitors of the movement, My Bloody Valentine. Herewith, the Basics of the genre, from the atmospheric pulsations of MBV's "Soon" to Blur's more radio-friendly entry, "She's So High".

As Shoegazing grew from an in-crowd new sound to a wildly popular alt trend, it not only gained a tongue-in-cheek nickname ("The Scene that Celebrates Itself"); it expanded to include variations on the theme. As we embark on our Shoegaze Next Steps, we find the Jesus and Mary Chain's down-and-dirty take on pop sweetness, "Some Candy Talking", anticipates the rumblings of grunge, while the Verve holds a strong hint of greatness with the neo-psychedelic "Slide Away" from 1993's debut studio album, A Storm in Heaven. Drifting in warm waters where the tides of shoegaze meet those of ambient techno, we find Ulrich Schnauss, and "Look at the Sky".

All things must pass, intense musical movements included, but when the first-wave shoegazers finally looked up from their footwear, what they saw was a whole new scene that they themselves had begotten. The proof is in the Deep Cuts — witness one of the two bands to emerge from the latter-day Shoegaze outfit Slowdive ("Machine Gun"), Televise, which brings its ambient roots to bear on a more straightforward rock sound with "Mercy Seat". As for the future of shoegaze . . . well, perhaps that belongs to the likes of Maps, aka James Chapman, whose first studio album, We Can Create (featuring "You Don't Know Her Name") picked up a Mercury Prize nomination in 2007.

The beauty of tracing the roots and branches of a musical movement like Shoegaze — the massively influential, primarily British scene of the late '80s and early '90s — is that it reveals a network of influence and evolution that comes around in the grand scheme only rarely. Spiritualized, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, Lush, Loop, Catherine Wheel — the list of bands that sprang from a common ground of distorted, droning guitars, heavy yet melodic riffs, haunting vocals, and an air of intently detached creativity may be a bit daunting, but when you listen to our Shoegaze Essentials, it all comes together in a coherent picture of vital artistic give-and-take.